Stray cats and dogs are well protected under Italian law

One of Rome's many stray cats and a member of a protected colony

It may surprise some people, as it has surprised me, that stray cats and dogs are given a lot of protection in Italy; far more than in most other countries. This probably shouldn’t surprise me because the stray cats – I’m loathe to call them feral cats because they appear to be semi-domesticated – …

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War machine Russia becomes uncivilised towards stray dogs and cats

Shelter dogs in the east of Russia being shipped west by train to save their lives.

In Putin’s big push to win the war in Ukraine he has increased the military budget to 30% of GDP. The average in the West is around 2%. In 2024, Russia is a war machine and a terrorist state. Most citizens of Russia are unaware of it except that they must be seeing substantially …

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Humane Animal Support Services. A discussion and one criticism.

HASS system can leave stray cats and dogs on the street in harsh weather

Nathan Winograd got me thinking about a program called Humane Animal Support Services (HASS). He doesn’t like the programme or at least one aspect of it. He says that under this program “regressive pounds” turn away animals that need a shelter. The program was created by Austin Pets Alive and “embraced” by Best Friends …

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Kremlin suggested strapping stray dogs with explosives to run at Ukraine tanks

Stray dogs in Russia

NEWS AND OPINION: The news today from the Daily Express is that Kremlin officials had plans to strap explosives to stray dogs and train them to run at Ukraine tanks. In short, they wanted stray dogs to be suicide dogs in what appears to be another desperate measure by the tyrant Putin. The idea …

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Animal pound directors often falsely claim dogs are aggressive to kill them. Discuss.

Centerton Animal Shelter in the news

Nathan Winograd tells people who receive his emails that “Pound directors often falsely claim dogs are aggressive to kill them. But experience and studies prove that more than 99% of dogs brought to shelters can be safely adopted.” You get the same sort of issues with cat shelters, so this article covers both cats …

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Allegedly Qatar’s stray cats and dogs seized before World Cup

With the world's eyes on Qatar, authorities are desperate to show a positive image by cleaning up the streets of stray animals

The Sun online newspaper has a story which immediately reminds me of the Beijing Olympics and the Sochi Winter Olympics. It’s this: just before these big events start and in this case I’m referring to the football World Cup in Qatar, the authorities clean up the streets of stray cats and dogs. As the …

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Mars State of Pet Homelessness Index – measuring success and failure in pet domestication

Stray cat and dog fed the same food

Mars Petcare have created a useful and interesting index which pulls together information about homeless cats and dogs in 9 countries. They used more than 200 global and local sources. They researched attitudes towards cat and dog ownership. Germany comes out on top while India is bottom. The index provides a score as to …

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